Issue: 1142
US Fed to tap former Wall
Street lawyer Guynn for top bank oversight role: The U.S. Federal Reserve is
expected to name Randall Guynn as its new director of supervision and
regulation, said two people familiar with the matter, putting a Wall Street
veteran with deep banking ties in a powerful position policing the industry. Guynn,
a former partner at law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP who has represented
the largest U.S. lenders, would replace Michael Gibson, who announced his
retirement in July after more than three decades at the central bank.
(Reuters)
US CPI inflation softens to
2.4% in January vs. 2.5% forecast: Annual inflation in the US, as measured by the
change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), declined to 2.4% in January from 2.7%
in December, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday. This
print came in below the market expectation of 2.5%.On a monthly basis, the CPI
rose by 0.2% in January following the 0.3% increase recorded in December. The
core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, increased by 2.5% on
a yearly basis, matching analysts' estimate.
(FXStreet)
India allows wheat exports
after 4 years to boost domestic prices, permits 0.5 mt more sugar shipments: The Indian Government on Friday approved the
export of 2.5 million tonnes (mt) of wheat. It also permitted shipments of an additional
0.5 mt of wheat products and 0.5 mt of sugar to “stabilise domestic markets and
ensure remunerative returns to producers”. The additional quantity will be over
and above 0.5 mt of wheat products and 1.5 mt of sugar already allowed for
export.
(Business Line)
RBI plans to
allow bank loans to REITs by July 1: The
Reserve Bank on Friday proposed allowing banks to extend loans to REITs,
capping the total exposure at 49 per cent of the asset value under each
investment trust. At present, there are five listed REITs
in India - Brookfield India Real Estate Trust, Embassy Office Parks REIT,
Mindspace Business Parks REIT, Nexus Select Trust, and Knowledge Realty Trust. Currently,
banks provide credit to Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs), which are
similar to REITs. REITs and InvITs were conceptualised with a view to free up
banks' funds in completed and operational real estate and infrastructure
projects by refinancing such exposures with pooled funds of institutional as
well as retail investors.
(Moneycontrol)
Uday Kotak named chairman
of GIFT City with immediate effect: The Gujarat government has
appointed veteran banker and industrialist Uday Kotak as the Chairman of
Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Limited (GIFT City), with
immediate effect. The appointment was announced through a resolution issued by
the Urban Development and Urban Housing Department on Thursday, according to
reports. Kotak succeeds Dr Hasmukh Adhia, IAS (Retd.), who had been serving as
Chairman (Non-Executive) of the Board of Directors of GIFT City since June 19,
2023.
(Business Today)
RBI overhauls Lead Bank
Scheme; stops ‘No Due’ certificates, pushes rural outlets, sets 60% CD ratio
rule: RBI
is introducing new rules to make credit more accessible. Banks will no longer
need 'no dues' certificates from borrowers. Opening at least a quarter of all
new banking outlets in tier 5 and tier 6 centres, and direct lenders to
maintain a 60% CD ratio across their rural and semi-urban operations.
(Economic Times)
RBI allows banks higher
acquisition financing limit: Indian lenders will be allowed
to finance acquisitions up to 20% of their eligible capital base, the Reserve
Bank of India said in its final rules following a ?review of ?bank ?exposure to capital markets. The
RBI had suggested a cap of 10% of a bank's tier-1 capital for acquisition
financing in its draft rules published last year, but lenders asked for a
higher cap. ?The central ?bank on Friday
said the recommendation from banks has been accepted. Up ?until now, Indian banks were
not allowed ?to finance acquisitions, leaving them at ?a disadvantage compared
to foreign banks and investment funds.
(Economic Times)
RBI approves a third term
for AU Bank managing director Sanjay Agarwal: The Reserve Bank of India has
approved Sanjay Agarwal's re-appointment as Managing Director of AU Small
Finance Bank. This marks his third term, effective April 19. The approval comes
as the bank aims to become a universal lender. AU Small Finance Bank is
currently the largest small finance lender in India.
(Economic Times)
PSBs gain share in credit
card spending: Public
sector banks have significantly increased their share in credit card spending,
reaching 22.2% in December 2025. This growth is attributed to higher usage by
existing cardholders, robust festive demand, and expanded reach into salaried
segments, particularly driven by large PSBs like SBI Cards. The integration of
RuPay credit cards with UPI has also fueled this expansion.
(Economic Times)
NPCI Int'l inks pact with
PayNet Malaysia to enable UPI, DuitNow acceptance: NPCI International Payments
Ltd (NIPL), the international arm of NPCI, has signed an agreement with
Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet), Malaysia's national payments
network, to enable QR-based merchant payments between India and Malaysia. The
rollout of this initiative will happen in a phase-wise manner. In the first
phase, Indian travellers visiting Malaysia will be able to use their UPI apps
to make seamless cross-border merchant payments at DuitNow QR acceptance
touchpoints, it said.
(Business Standard)
Bank unions calls DFS move
to revise PLI framework 'discriminatory': The United Forum of Bank
Unions (UFBU) has opposed the Department of Financial Services’ (DFS) move to
alter the performance-linked incentive (PLI) framework in public sector banks
(PSBs), alleging that the proposed changes are “divisive” and violate the
status quo agreed during conciliation proceedings. The PLI scheme was finalised
under the 11th Bipartite Settlement and 8th Joint Note in 2020, covering
employees from part-time staff to general managers in Scale VII. Since then,
incentives have been paid uniformly within each bank based on its overall
performance. However, last year, the DFS advised PSBs to shift from the
settlement-based structure to a revised mechanism under which PLI for officers
in Scale IV and above would be linked to individual performance.
(Business Standard)
Anthropic clinches $380
billion valuation after $30 billion funding round: Anthropic has raised $30 billion in its latest
funding round, more than doubling the Claude chatbot maker's valuation to $380
billion and underscoring massive investor interest in the startup and the
broader AI industry. The company has differentiated itself by focusing its
model training on coding, with Claude Code gaining strong traction among
developers and helping the company gain an edge over rivals in the enterprise
AI market.
(Reuters)
New Fund of Funds startups
approved by PM:
The
government on Friday approved the second Startup Fund of Funds (FFS) with an
outlay of Rs 10,000 crore for startups in early stages and those involved in
deep-tech research. Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed the file for the fund.
It was among the first set of decisions taken from his new office Seva
Teerth. The second FFS with an outlay of
Rs 10,000 crore was announced in the budget for this financial year. It is a
continuation of the first FFS announced in 2016 whose Rs 10,000 corpus has been
fully utilised.
(Financial Express)
Niti Aayog says existing IT
services model at risk: Ahead of the India AI Impact
Summit, government think tank Niti Aayog in a report released on Tuesday said
that India’s technology services industry must fundamentally rework its business
model around artificial intelligence and innovation if it is to sustain growth
and remain globally competitive. The report, Technology Services: Reimagination
Ahead, has said that incremental scaling of the existing labour-intensive IT
services model will be insufficient in a world where AI, automation and
platform-led delivery are reshaping how technology services are consumed.
Instead, it has called for a decisive shift towards AI-native, outcome-linked
and product-led offerings, supported by large-scale reskilling and policy
reforms.
(Financial Express)
BHIM's UPI volumes grow
five-fold, market share inches closer to 1%: Bharat Interface for Money
(BHIM) has gradually moved up to become the sixth-largest UPI app on the
real-time payments system’s leaderboard, overtaking major third-party apps such
as Cred, Amazon Pay and WhatsApp. The app processed 172.07 million Unified
Payments Interface (UPI) transactions with a cumulative value of Rs 22,025.89
crore in January. In terms of volume, it recorded a five-fold growth from 33.88
million transactions in January 2025. The total transaction value in the same
month was recorded at Rs 11,725.85 crore. With this growth, BHIM is inching
towards a 1 per cent market share on the UPI leaderboard
(Business Standard)
US bank regulators move
closer to proposing new 'Basel' rules for large banks: U.S. bank regulators appear to be moving
closer to proposing a new version of the so-called "Basel endgame"
rules dictating how large banks must measure their risk, according to regulatory
filings posted this week. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office
of the Comptroller of the Currency submitted proposals on Thursday to the
Office of Management and Budget for review, according to the website of the
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which is the part of OMB charged
with reviewing rule proposals.
(Reuters)
RBI allows NBFCs to factor
DLG in determining provisions under ECL: RBI allowed NBFCs to factor in default loss
guarantees (DLG) provided by lending apps while determining provisions under
the expected credit loss (ECL) framework across all stages of loan default,
subject to compliance with Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS). The amendment,
which comes into force immediately, clarifies that NBFCs may consider DLG
protection while computing ECL, provided the guarantee arrangement is integral
to the contractual terms of the loan and is not recognised as a separate asset
in the books. The central bank added that since the DLG cover reduces every
time it is invoked, NBFCs must recompute their ECL provisioning requirements
across all stages after adjusting for the reduced guarantee cover.
(Business Standard)
Kerala 1st state to frame
urban policy, expects 80% urbanisation by 2050: Kerala on Friday became the first state in the
country to frame a comprehensive Urban Policy, laying out a long-term
development roadmap as it moves rapidly towards an urban future. The policy
envisions Kerala in 2050 as "a continuous network of climate-smart cities
and towns, ensuring scientific planning and good governance."
(Business Standard)
UNEARNED INCOME
§ The term unearned income refers to any income that
is not acquired through work. Put simply, unearned income is any money you earn
by doing nothing. This is in contrast to earned income, which is any
compensation received for performing a service like work.
§ There are many types of unearned or passive income,
including interest from savings accounts, bond interest, alimony, and dividends
from stocks.
§ Unearned income, which can serve as a supplement to
earned income before retirement, is often the only source of income in
post-retirement years.
RBI KEY RATES
Repo
Rate: 5.25%
SDF:
5.00%
MSF
/Bank Rate: 5.50%
CRR:
3.00%
SLR:
18.00%
FOREX RATES (RBI REF. RATE)
INR
/ 1 USD : 90.7415
INR
/ 1 GBP : 123.4459
INR
/ 1 EUR : 107.6218
INR
/100 JPY: 59.2000
EQUITY INDEX
Sensex: 82626.76 (-1048.16)
NIFTY: 25471.10 (-336.10)
Bnk NIFTY: 60186.65 (-553.10)
Historical events: February 14 is primarily known globally as Valentine's Day, but holds significant, somber weight in India as the anniversary of the 2019 Pulwama terror attack, which claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel. Other notable events include the 1556 coronation of Akbar the Great and the 2005 registration of YouTube.
****Have a nice Day****
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